TOW #6 | Written - Zora Neale Hurston's "How It Feels to Be Colored Me"

In Zora Neale Hurston's "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," she defines what it means to be colored. Instead of being a characteristic one is born with, she instead associates being "colored" with feeling apart or different from the majority. She uses sharp diction and metaphors to describe her personal experiences of feeling "colored."

Although she does share her experience of how she became "colored," she highlights how being colored did not bring her down in any way. She explained how "there is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes" (6). The use of terms like "dammed" and "lurking" emphasizes on the normal reaction other people in society have once they recognize that they are colored. By using these strong terms and portraying how Hurston was able to fight against the "dammed sorrow" and the "lurking behind her eyes," it shows how strong Hurston was in those situations. This also reveals to the audience the effect stereotyping can have on people and the importance of standing up for oneself and accepting oneself as who they are as an individual, regardless of the stereotypes that come with certain traits like their skin color.

Hurston also uses metaphor to describe her experiences being the minority. She describes herself as "a dark rock surged upon, overswept by a creamy sea" (10). By describing herself as a dark rock and white people as a creamy sea, Hurston highlights the color of their skin tone to help the audience understand how she felt at the time, being a black individual at the time. The metaphor is also used for the audience to gain understanding of how she felt; she wanted to point out how much these stereotypes and discrimination "overswept her," like a huge sea would do to a small rock that had nowhere else to move.

Sharing her experiences being a black woman, Hurston expresses her discontent with society's stereotyping and discrimination through the use of sharp diction and metaphor.

TOW #5 | Written - Martin Luther's "I Have a Dream"

The mid-1900s displayed racial segregation to its fullest--from schools to public restrooms, the United States had separate facilities for whites and blacks. However, a man by the name of Martin Luther King Jr. took the first leap in ending segregation through means of peaceful protests. One of his most influential speeches, “I Have a Dream,” still clings to the hearts of Americans today, reminding them of the powerful message King delivered to the American people in an effort to stop racial discrimination and give African-Americans the rights that they deserve.

Martin Luther King Jr. utilizes a variety of rhetorical devices, but one of the most prominent devices he uses is allusion. In the beginning of his speech, King alludes to Abraham Lincoln, describing him as a “great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand today” (2). By alluding to Abraham Lincoln, King brings a well-respected figure that all Americans know and think highly of to support his claim of ending racial segregation. Because Lincoln is a well-known, adored figure that advocated for equal rights for blacks, King uses Lincoln’s authoritative status to build credibility so that the audience is able to find credence in King’s argument from the beginning of his speech. 

In addition to an allusion to Lincoln, King also alludes to the Declaration of Independence, stating that according to it, all men, black and white, were promised “‘unalienable rights’ of ‘Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness’” (4). Using the Declaration of Independence, one of the speeches that are a major asset to our country, King proves how that the United States was not made to segregate between races, but rather give equal rights to everyone, despite their race. Pulling out such an iconic line that everyone in America knows from the Declaration of Independence portrays how America and the people of America should begin to treat everyone with “unalienable rights.” It further allows the audience to understand the importance of equal rights to the United States and the original intent one of the United States’ most well-known speeches that helped rebuild the country out of slavery.

Being an iconic figure in black history, Martin Luther King Jr. did more than deliver a speech for the American people--he began a revolution that would soon grant African-Americans the “Life, Liberty, and pursuit of Happiness” that they should have been given from the beginning.

TOW #4 | Written - How to Survive the College Applications Madness

In Frank Bruni’s “How to Survive the College Admissions Madness,” he discusses failures and acceptances for top-ranking students applying for top-tier colleges. He uses short sentences, incisive diction, and sets a hopeful tone to the essay; however, he mainly portrays the successes of top students that do not end up in top colleges through cause-and-effect.

From the beginning of the article, Bruni exemplifies a student named Peter Hart. He had come from a very affluent school in Chicago. However, when applying to his top two choices, University of Michigan and University of Illinois, “both rejected him” (4). He then went on to attend Indiana University instead, where he felt that he “was a competent person” (6), succeeding immensely at that university and ending up attending graduate school at Harvard. By using a specific example to show the cause and effect of an intelligent being rejected and attending a lower-ranking college, Bruni is giving the audience evidence that his points are true. The audience is also able to make a connection between his argument that top-ranking students attending lower-ranking colleges will still be successful because Bruni uses Peter Hart’s example to connect the dots and provide substantial evidence.

Bruni, an American journalist who won and was nominated for many prizes for writing, wrote this text in order to highlight the idea that success can come out of failure. He focuses his audience on students that are in high school and college—especially those in their high school senior year, applying, receiving, and being rejected of their applications. Bruni does this to show those students that just because their top choice of college rejected them does not mean that they will not go on to succeed later on in life. Not only does he make his audience as students, but parents of those students as well. In the last paragraph, Bruni adds a letter sent from parents to a student that was rejected from his top two colleges and instead attended his third choice. The letter shows the love and support his parents give him despite his inability to attend a top college. He utilizes this letter to send the message out to other parents that they should support their child to the end—for their failure not does not mean that they will not be successful later.